Neptune : from grand discovery to a world revealed : essays on the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Couch Adams /editor-in-chief, William Sheehan ; Trudy E. Bell, Carolyn Kennett, Robert W. Smith, editors.

"The 1846 discovery of Neptune is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of astronomy. However, the events surrouding this discovery have long been mired in controversy engaging European and American astronomers alike. Who first predicted the new planet? Was the discovery a triumph of Isaac Newton's theory of universal gravitation, or was it just a lucky fluke? Written by an international group of experts, this path-breaking volume explores in unprecedented depth the contentious history of Neptune's discovery. Drawing on newly discovered documents and re-examining the historical record, the authors reveal new insights into kew individuals and the pressures acting on them. Moreover, using modern tools in celestial mechanics developed in the last twenty years, the book discusses Newton's ideas about gravity and re-examines the calculations that prompted the discovery of Neptune. This process also reveals why the approach that proved so potent for Neptune's discovery could not produce similar discoveries, despite several valiant attempts. The final cahpters recount how the discovery of Neptune marked the end of one quest - to explain the wayward motions of Uranus - and the beginning of another: to understand the outer Solar System, whose icy precincts Neptune, the outermost of the giant planets, bounds."--Provided by the publisher.